The Doctor Goes to Class
by PixieKindOfCrazy
Summary: He had been saying for quite some time now that he would pop in on one of her classes one day. So she really shouldn't have been surprised. In her defense, he might not have mentioned it in HER timeline yet.


**A/n: **Alright, this has been on my computer for a couple months now and I never finished it. Shameful really, but there's this thing that happens a lot. I get really inspired, start the beginning of what should be a really awesome fic….then I get distracted. So here's me conquering my attention span, for you, the reviewers (hopefully )

**Disclaimer: **I own only ideas.

**The Doctor Goes to Class**

She really shouldn't have been surprised. He'd been telling her for months now that he just might pop into one of her classes one day. 'Purely for educational reasons, of course.' He'd claimed that he wanted to see how she taught- if she got the historical facts right, how she treated her students, etc. All that stuff, proper and what not. He believes that they were on Gastrix Minor when he'd mentioned it last-that he was actually planning to check in on one of her classes.

So, honestly, he HAD informed her. (Granted, at the time of her 'informant' she was occupied by the two dozen angry warrior chiefs trying to cut their heads off.) So when she strolled into her classroom that morning, carrying her briefcase, none the wiser to what was about to happen, she began to address her class of about 30 eager archaeology students-and the ten or so who thought they'd signed up for rock climbing or something of the more active sort.

"Good morning, class…or as good as mornings ever get at university," she paused while her class laughed; she found that young students learned better when they were truly entertained, but she wasn't kidding-she'd been up all night grading papers, "Now, I trust you all read the chapters on the artifacts of the lost race of Alpha Megor…." she trailed off as she caught his green-blue gaze; the audacious man was staring straight at her, with a look that could melt iron. She knew that look; he'd caught her off guard…and he was enjoying it. That wicked man. As much as she was irritated with him for surprising her like that in front of all of her students, she was just as joyous to see him. From the look on his face, this was a him that knew her. And she'd been seeing THAT him so rarely lately that from the second she looked at his face, all her thoughts slipped from her mind and she completely forgot she was in her classroom for a minute.

Once she regained her wits, she decided to play it cool to get back at him for the shock, "Sir…." She trailed off questioningly.

When the Doctor realized what she was doing, he quickly played along, and mouthed 'Who? Me?' pointing at his own chest.

"Yes, you, in the third row…are you new? I don't believe I've seen you before."

Her students laughed at the seemingly out of place man in a bowtie being caught by their no-bullshit professor.

But her words caused a completely evil smirk to grace his face and she knew exactly what his expression meant; she didn't even need to read his thoughts to know what he was thinking. _Oh, you've seen all of me actually_.

He decided to keep up the act anyway, "No, no," he waved his hands around in that wonderfully mad way of his that he does when he's dismissing something, "I'm quite new. I was just taking a look around the university, trying to get a…._feel_ for what classes I'd like to take."

She couldn't help but think that her _class_ was not what he wanted to 'get a feel for'. He was a very good actor though, she'd give him that. He could very well pass for a wandering college student. What with his baby face and all.

She grinned ear to ear, even though her class might find it strange, sometimes she just couldn't help herself around this man, "Well then, you're free to sit in on the lecture today. If you find anything about it…interesting, then don't hesitate to come ask me about it after class."

And with that she turned around, collected her papers, and started her lecture.  
It probably was quite interesting; she looked very into it, talking with her hands, explaining all the facts properly and getting the dates right, she even managed to make the group of college kids laugh more than once. But if he was honest with himself, he wasn't listening to the lecture. Although, he did find some things about it _quite_ interesting. Like the way she scrunched her nose when she searched her mind for the proper way to explain something to her pupils, or the color of her ruby red lips as they formed the words of the lecture (red lipstick for teaching? Honestly!), and he was particularly interested in the way her eyes lit up when she smiled at some of her students eagerness to learn. And no, he was NOT watching intently every time she leaned over a bit. You see, he'd figured out that when she gets very into the lecture she'll walk around the room, even walk up the isles of the students, asking them questions, but when the lecture switches to a more pensive Q and A laid back type of atmosphere, she tends to sit on top of her desk and lean her elbows on her legs. Not that he was…watching, any particular…place, when she did that. Not at all. He came here to watch her teach…not…the other thing. They could do the other thing when they're both in the TARDIS. Alone.

"Well no, actually, I don't believe the Assonis ever meant the drawings as records, I think-and if you ask any of your other professors about this, they'll whole-heartedly disagree-that they drew these sort of….hieroglyphics- though you really can't call them that because they're not simple cave drawings, they're actually amazingly advanced, and have all kinds of codes and details in them scientists now can't figure out- I think they were meant to be more of a form of self expression, maybe even used in ceremonies, to signify events in this race's history, or even to send secret messages to each other through. In fact-tell anyone this and they'll call me a liar-but I've actually been to Assoni 7. Went there on a date once, if you'd believe it. Though it just turned into the pair of us running away from an angry mob, again. "

The class erupted in sonorous laughter, which he assumed meant that River had told her class many stories of their adventures, and from the intrigue in their eyes he could also tell that she'd never told them who he was. Not even a name. And he was right. She never did tell them. Not even a name. She told the stories to vent, to express herself to have someone other than him and her parents to talk to about all this stuff. And her class loved it, at first they were a bit hard-pressed to believe her. They did live in the 50th century and were fairly open to crazy ideas but even to them, some of her tales had sounded a little doubtful. Especially when they'd never met this so called man and she wouldn't even tell them his name. Whenever they'd asked, she'd just say, "Oh he has many names. " But all of that doubt disappeared the day she'd shown up to class in a ripped evening gown with her hair smoking and an angry alien following through the door behind her, which she promptly shot in the head, leaving a burning whole in his skull (What? She had to protect her students after all. The lizard man had chased her here-it wasn't her fault.)

After that, she'd simply walked to her desk like nothing had happened, muttering something about a "Daft old man" then a scoff and a string of words that sounded like "just tells the Lorxian Prime Ambassador that he's not the blood heir of the throne and therefore DOESN'T have the right to own his own chicken!"

The class had still been puzzling over that extremely odd tidbit when they heard a man's voice yell back from somewhere outside the door, "I heard that!"

"Anyway, to answer your question Billy-no, the drawings were not originally meant as records. They were a tradition, a part of their culture. Every Assoni draws on the Wall of Life before they die, add something to it that represents themselves. So, it _is _a history of their people, but they didn't intend for it to be used for that, no."

"Actually," he decided now was as good a time as any to interject, she'd been suspecting he would since she laid eyes on him this morning, "I spoke to their King when we were there. He mentioned that one of the reasons he so persistently kept up the Wall, besides for tradition of course, was that if they were to be wiped out, then at least other races could look at their Wall and see through the pictures who the Assonis were. And no, you wouldn't remember this conversation. I believe you were in the shower at that time."

He finished off his shocking, but accurate spiel with a grin as the whole room went dead silent from shock. The Doctor could practically hear the racing thoughts of each one of them.

_So THAT'S the man she always goes on about?_

_I wonder what she'll say to that… _

_What's with the bowtie? _

River Song snapped her eyes up to meet his, she was about to go off on him, when she properly LOOKED at his stupid grinning face. He wasn't messing with her this time, he was trying to share with her, lend himself to the parts of her life that she normally didn't let him in. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then couldn't help but sigh and chuckle a little, "Don't think I didn't know you'd slipped out of the room while I was showering, Sweetie…."

She fired back at him with as much confidence and wit as he had. God, he loved her. She kept up with him. No, more than that, actually-she BEAT him. Often.

He laughed freely and it was a wonderful sound to her ears, "I never could fool you, Dear."

River had been so caught up in flirting with him that she'd almost forgotten about the 40 or so students gaping at the pair of them like they'd just seen two characters from their storybooks pop to life in front of their eyes. And actually, they kind of HAD.

She turned back to their audience and shook her head with an 'Oh stupid me, sorry' expression and sighed again, "Sorry class. I probably should've introduced you before."

She nodded to the Doctor as if he was an annoying problem that she never succeeded in getting rid of, but still kind of liked, "This is Doctor….Song," she smirked, knowing that would annoy him, "My husband."

The Doctor beamed; she'd introduced him as her husband in public before, but it still made his hearts go faster whenever he heard the words.

He grinned foolishly at her class and waved like a 5 year old, "Hello."

There was utter silence in the room for another minute as they took in what had just happened. Then, the room exploded with voices.


End file.
